That triumvirate of tax increases is kicking in for the state’s highest earners. Beginning this year — and in some cases retroactive to last — the wealthiest among us will see a greater share of their compensation captured not only by the federal government as a means of averting the fiscal cliff and funding health care reform but also as an antidote to the state’s long-running budget morass.

“The increase in an already-high tax rate is a strong disincentive for people to live and work in California. I have friends who have already left for Florida and for other states that either don’t have personal income tax or that have ones that are far lower than California’s,” said Robert J. Shillman of Rancho Santa Fe, the chairman and chief culture officer at Cognex Corp., which designs and markets machine vision and industrial ID systems.

“The reason this is happening is very clear: There are more ‘takers’ than ‘makers’ in our society, and this is leading directly to the decline of free enterprise and capitalism, and this will inevitably lead to the decline in the standard of living … not only in California, but also in the entire country.”

Academics caution that by historical standards, taxes for the rich have been higher in the past. Also, they say, it’s not demonstrated that such increases will spark a broad exodus of the wealthy.

Their share

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 10 percent of households with the highest incomes already pay more than 70 percent of federal income taxes. They will face a range of increases.

Taxpayers with adjusted gross income above $250,000 (or $300,000 for those married and filing jointly) will face limits on itemized deductions. And upper-income Americans could also be in for higher taxes on long-term capital gains, dividends and estates.

For individual income exceeding $400,000 or joint filings exceeding $450,000, the top tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent this year from 35 percent last year. The lower rate has been in place since the Bush tax cuts of 2001.

Examining a range of increases, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that households earning $500,000 to $1 million a year will pay $14,812 more in taxes, decreasing their after-tax income by 3.1 percent. Those making more than $1 million would get an average tax increase of $170,341, dropping their after-tax income by 7.8 percent. The policy center is a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.

Leonard Wright, a San Diego-based financial adviser who represents high-net-worth clients across the nation, said the tax hikes were a hindrance to business owners who have toiled long hours to build their financial success.

“Now their business is taking off, and they’re having a measure of success, and they feel like they’re being penalized for being successful,” he said.

Taxpayers at all income levels will lose the benefit of a 2 percentage point drop in the payroll tax toward Social Security, a reduction that passed in 2010.